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UEF involved in four FIRI Committee’s “lighthouse infrastructures”

The Finnish Research Infrastructure Committee (FIRI Committee) has taken the funding decisions concerning the research infrastructures selected to Finland’s national roadmap for research infrastructures 2025–2028. In December 2024, the FIRI Committee selected 21 research infrastructures to be included in the roadmap.

The Roadmap for Finnish Research Infrastructures is a tool for the research community, policymakers and funders to guide investment and support research, development and innovation. In total, around 127 million euros has been earmarked for roadmap infrastructures during the period 2025–2029.

The FIRI Committee decided on 2 December 2024 to fund the selected roadmap infrastructures with around 15 million euros, and on 27 January 2025 with just over 35 million euros. The share of the University of Eastern Finland is a total of 3.12 million euros. Some of the funding decisions are still coming.

The University of Eastern Finland is involved in 9 research infrastructure consortiums:

  • Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure of Finland (BBMRI.fi) is a research infrastructure comprising all public and academic biobanks in Finland. BBMRI.fi is the Finnish National Node of the European level BBMRI-ERIC infrastructure. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Arto Mannermaa.
  • Biocenter Finland is a nationwide Life Science research infrastructure organisation. It coordinates 17 technology platforms to cover key technologies that are used to study the most pressing global challenges from loss of biodiversity to severe healthcare challenges. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Seppo Auriola and the university was granted a funding of 455 664 euros.
  • Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure (FIN-CLARIAH) is a research infrastructure for Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) comprising two components, FIN-CLARIN and DARIAH-FI, and supporting research using e.g. large language models and AI. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Mikko Laitinen and the university was granted a funding of 146 784 euros.
  • Euro-BioImaging Finland (EB-Fi) is a research infrastructure consisting of Finland's leading, internationally renowned centres in biological and biomedical imaging. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Olli Gröhn and the university was granted a funding of 1.43 million euros.
  • The European Infrastructure of Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology EU-OS Finland (EU-OS FI) is a member of the European EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC (EU-OS) research infrastructure consortium. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Associate Professor Kristiina Huttunen and the university was granted a funding of 296 753 euros.
  • Integrated Atmospheric and Earth System Science Research Infrastructure (INAR RI) is an umbrella research infrastructure, coordinating the national nodes of European environmental research infrastructures (ICOS, ACTRIS, eLTER and AnaEE). The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Annele Virtanen and the university was granted a funding of 353 635 euros.
  • Structural Biology Finland (FINStruct) is a national, distributed, open access structural biology research infrastructure. FINStruct's flagship services form the Instruct Centre Finland, which is the national node of the European Instruct-ERIC. The person in charge of the FINStruct and Instruct FI consortium (Integrated Structural Biology Infrastructure Instruct-ERIC Centre Finland) at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Janne Jänis.
  • The Finnish Infrastructure for Register-Based Research (FIRE) is a remote access, application service and training infrastructure for conducting register-based research in Finland. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Mikko Aaltonen and the university was granted a funding of 255 557 euros.
  • Geoportti – Open Geospatial Information Infrastructure for Research is a digital research infrastructure enabling scientists to access geospatial data and geocomputing resources through centralised high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure. The person in charge at the University of Eastern Finland is Professor Alfred Colpaert and the university was granted a funding of 183 233 euros.

From among the roadmap research infrastructures, the FIRI Committee also selected six research infrastructures as "lighthouse infrastructures". Lighthouse status is granted to research infrastructures that have been the most successful infrastructures in the roadmap call, meet the lighthouse criteria and lead the way in all key infrastructure areas, such as service provision, impact, functionality and shared use. The lighthouses are showcases of and spearheads for the service offer and impact of roadmap research infrastructures.

The University of Eastern Finland is involved in four "lighthouse infrastructures": Biocenter Finland, Euro-BioImaging Finland, FIN-CLARIAH, and INAR RI.

Source: Research Council of Finland